Sword-Singer

by Jennifer Roberson

Series:

Sword #2

Publisher:

DAW

Copyright:

September 1988

ISBN:

0-88677-447-0

Format:

Mass market

Pages:

382

Despite an awkward and clunky recap of the events of the first book at the
beginning of this one, you don't want to read Sword-Singer without
reading Sword-Dancer first. The story
is much better in its original form.

One thing that I like about this series is that it doesn't follow the
typical sequence of a big fantasy series. There isn't a lurking evil that
grows in power over the course of the series until it has to be dealt with
in the final volume. There isn't an overall plot that just gets shuffled
around in the middle books. Instead, there's a clear plot arc in each
book that's resolved at the end of the book, just leaving some loose ends
for the next volume. The part of this book that deals with the loose ends
from the first is quite good. Unfortunately, that's only the last hundred
pages or so.

I'm not sure Roberson really knew what she wanted to do with the second
book. Partly, I think she wanted to give a tour of the North from
Sandtiger's perspective, after spending the last book in his beloved
South. Eventually, of course, the open question of Staal-Ysta and Del's
fate must be dealt with. But the latter doesn't get started until the
end, and the former is handled with what feels like rolls from a random
encounter table.

Admittedly, the first book featured a fair number of coincidental
encounters in order to run the characters past several interesting
inhabitants of the South. It gave the impression of a reason for those
encounters, though, and carried a sense of direction. Sword-Singer
is just random. Tiger stumbles into various mythological creatures of the
North for no obvious reason, is followed around by creatures who are left
as an unexplained dangling plot hook, and gets smacked around most every
time he sees anything new. I'd hate the North too.

Combine that with the rough start and plot recap and most of this book
falls flat. This is the weakest book of the series; even Tiger and Del's
banter doesn't seem to flow as well. The only salvaging factor is that
the ending, once we get back to the business of swords and the main plot
line, is excellent, with hard conflicts, few emotional cop-outs, and a
really surprising finale.

I still enjoyed this book for the last third, and Roberson does weave her
random encounters into the rest of the story in upcoming books, but this
is mostly a slog. It's unfortunate to have such a flat note early on in
the series, since it may scare off people who would like the third and
fourth books much better. It's not a great book in its own right; the
only reason to stick with it is that you have to have the background to
set up the next story.